Today’s Editorial for April 11: A proportional response

The United States military has a strategy called “proportional response”.

What proportional response means is that military forces make responses according to the threat faced. For example, they don’t drop an atomic bomb on a country when somebody takes a US citizen hostage. Negotiation is typically the preferred alternative.

There are, we believe, certain individuals in Cayman who should also employ the proportional response technique.

For example, having North Side Legislator Ezzard Miller bring a motion for the criminal prosecution of the Caymanian Compass and one of its reporters simply because he didn’t like one of our stories and editorials is, in our opinion, not a proportional response.

We can also point to the following recent quote from Cayman Stock Exchange Chairman Anthony Travers: “….fewer column inches should be attributed [in the Financial Times] to the delusional rantings of those extreme left-wing social engineers Messrs [John] Christensen and [Nick] Shaxson”.

The above individuals Mr. Travers names are not fans of places like the Cayman Islands and they do indeed often make statements that are purposely misleading or flat-out wrong about Cayman. But to resort to name-calling and insults in response every time people like Mr. Shaxson or Richard Murphy make a comment Cayman doesn’t like only detracts from the substance of the response.

These mildly amusing, amateur-hour public relations exercises don’t convince serious readers of anything, but instead only attract people who only want to see what outrageous insults Mr. Travers or Mr. Murphy et al fling at each other next.

Don’t get us wrong; someone should be countering the incorrect media reports about Cayman when they occur, and Mr. Travers is just about the only one carrying out this needed and noble fight for us. By the same token, we have no problem with legislators like Mr. Miller, or anyone else for that matter, taking intelligent umbrage with something we have written.

We just think people should use proportional response in their objections.